Guest talk for the LLTA [ˈeltə] Research Group, Thursday 29 January 2015

"In this talk I go back to my original thinking about appropriate methodology and social context, and re-examine the concepts of BANA, TESEP and context. I argue that these concepts may be too limiting and prevent us from seeing a wider picture. They may imply that educational problems reside in particular types of circumstances. I consider that appropriate methodologists need to look widely and deeply at whatever it takes to unlock how to engage with the intelligence of language students. This search must not, however, be stylised within prescribed notions of ‘context’, especially where they correspond with national cultural profiling and any notion of cultural deficiency."

Professor Adrian Holliday (Canterbury Christ Church University) began his career in English language education in Iran the early 1970s, and his work has travelled through engagements with a global cultural politics to arrive at current interests in the ideological underpinnings of intercultural communication. In this talk he revisits notions first explored in his influential book Appropriate Methodology and Social Context (Cambridge University Press, 1994).